A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the New Theatrical Production "This Land is My Land: Here From Afar"
Sep 28, 2023 / Blog
As the Charlotte International Arts Festival celebrates artistic creation from around the globe, a new, original theatrical production will highlight unique stories of individuals from our own community with international roots. The show plays one night only—Saturday, September 30 at Knight Theater.
“This Land is My Land: Here from Afar” - generously sponsored by Bank of America - is a co-production of Epoch Tribe and Blumenthal Performing Arts. The two organizations teamed up last year, too, to create “I Am Queen Charlotte,” a show celebrating and recognizing the contributions of Black women in our community.
This time around, award-winning storyteller and spoken word poet Hannah Hasan interviewed community leaders with immigrant origins to develop this brand new show.
“We hear all the time, ‘Charlotte is a world-class city,'” Hasan says.
But she wondered: how much do we really display and share the stories of people who have experiences that come from different corners of the world? Do we know how those backgrounds have shaped them and add to the home we have and share in Charlotte?
The project seemed like a perfect match for the spirit of CIAF.
It also stretches Hasan and her sister, Shardae Hasan (Co-founder and Creative Director of Epoch Tribe), in new directions artistically. Typically, the duo has specialized in capturing and retelling stories of the Black experience—often in communities experiencing displacement and gentrification, such as on Charlotte’s west side or in Optimist Park, where these stories might otherwise be lost.
But this isn’t their first time working with the international community. In September 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Epoch Tribe partnered with the City of Charlotte on a virtual event during "Welcoming Week," a national celebration focused on creating communities that are inclusive spaces for everyone, including immigrants. That online project highlighted stories of Charlotteans with immigrant backgrounds.
“We built a lot of relationships during that time,” Hannah Hasan says. Thanks to those new connections and many conversations within the Charlotte community since then, she and Shardae decided the time was right to expand that project into a stage version.
In “This Land is My Land: Here from Afar,” audiences will get the chance to hear stories about the experiences of eight Charlotteans with deep family ties to places across the globe, stretching from Vietnam to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador to Ethiopia, Haiti to India, as well as Lebanon and Syria.
They include artists, politicians, nonprofit leaders, community organizers, entrepreneurs and more. And their stories are all told by local performers, with music and dance woven in as well.
What are the stories about?
They reflect different moments and experiences in the lives of these real people—immigrants, refugees, and first generation Americans among them. But some common themes run throughout.
“Food came up a lot,” Hasan says, noting its importance in understanding and passing on traditions across cultures.
The other thing that stands out, she says, is how joyful this show feels.
Epoch Tribe always tells stories "of people who have the experience of being a marginalized person in America and there's often, you know, some sort of sadness and …some big difficulties attached to that,” she says.
“And it's not that there aren't difficulties attached to these stories. It is just that most of the general expression and experience of their culture and their life that they shared with us was really rooted in joy.”
Who are the storytellers?
After honing in on the stories to share, Hasan and her team looked for performers with similar backgrounds as the subjects to help bring them to life.
“This was the hardest casting process that we've had to date,” Hasan says. “And it's not because they're not talented people from diverse communities here. It’s because I don't know how many opportunities there are for, like, a Vietnamese actor."
For more than half of the cast, this is their first time doing something like this, Hasan says.
She credits the production’s director, Charlotte -based performing artist and educator Dawn Anthony, with making many of the connections that led to a diverse group of auditionees.
“She pounded the pavement,” Hasan says. Anthony went into community organizations, like International House, seeking recommendations for potential storytellers.
Hasan searched too. One of the storytellers she enlisted was 17-year old Brianna Ruiz, the youngest performer in the show.
A senior at Hawthorne Academy, Ruiz was a participant in “Intersections.” That's a community program, which Hasan founded and facilitates, that brings together local leaders and high school students to build connections through storytelling.
Ruiz, whose parents are both immigrants, says she felt an immediate connection to the story she tells in “This Land is My Land.” Her mother comes from Mexico and her father emigrated from El Salvador. Both arrived in the U.S. as teens.
“They met in New York when they were both taking English classes,” Ruiz says. “… [and] they were very fortunate that they were able to gain their citizenship pretty early on.”
In the show, Ruiz shares the story of another young Salvadoran immigrant (Stefania Arteaga, co-executive director of Carolina Migrant Network and a passionate advocate for immigrant rights).
Being able to tell a story that hits close to home has been meaningful, Ruiz says, and she’s drawn from her father’s own stories of his youth as she prepared for the experience.
She also sees similarities with her own experiences growing up in a world where people of color are frequently overlooked.
“Often, we have to fight a little harder to be seen,” she says. “And so being able to share that that experience is pretty similar to a lot of people, it's amazing…Growing up, I always wanted some sort of change. I always wanted more, and so being able to just bring that more to light—like I've always wanted—has been fantastic.”
Ruiz, who dreams of becoming a filmmaker someday, says much of her academic and extracurricular focus has been driven by a desire to share stories—her own and others'.
She also knows her own family roots have influenced her in significant ways.
“Everything that I do, all of my achievements, I thank my parents,” she says. “This is because of them, because they struggled to get a better life for my brother and I. They worked incredibly hard just to ensure that we had access and remind us that we are just as valued as anyone else here. And so they have always pushed us to go for the best that we can, and be the best that we can. So everything I do is for them.”
Why you should go
As audiences watch these stories unfold, Hasan hopes it feels like a celebration and serves as a bridge across communities. But she also intends it as a call to action.
“The fact that we’re sharing these stories is not just for the culture and the beauty of it,” she says. “It is almost a statement, as well. A statement that says, ‘This community is more rich, more diverse than probably most of us even know.’
“I’ve learned so much that I didn’t know about—so many… small things that are actually big things that matter to helping our community run," Hasan adds. "And I want people to take the information, the inspiration they receive, and choose to do something.”
Wondering where to start? Here’s what Epoch Tribe advocates:
1.) Be responsible with the art we support: make sure it includes Charlotte’s diverse artistic and creative community.
2.) Be intentional in where we spend our dollars: what kind of restaurants do we eat in and whom do we hire for the work we need done?
As Hasan says, these things "can come from different places than what we’re used to.”
Click here for tickets and more details on “This Land is My Land: Here from Afar.”
